GREAT Britain’s Chris Froome extended his La Vuelta lead by winning stage nine ahead of nearest rival Esteban Chaves at Cumbre del Sol.
Froome attacked with 500 metres to go of the steeply uphill finish and looked to have built a decisive gap, only for Chaves to dig deep and get back onto Froome’s back wheel.
However, Froome (Team Sky) was able to accelerate again and pulled clear to win by four seconds and extend his lead over Chaves (Orica-Scott) in the general classification to 36 seconds.
After the last survivor of an initial 10-man breakaway was finally caught by the peloton with six kilometres remaining, Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) twice tried to escape from the bunch on the final climb.
But Froome refused to panic and sat calmly behind team-mate Mikel Nieve at the front of the group containing the title contenders, none of whom were able to overtake.
The four-time Tour de France winner eventually hit the front with 500m remaining and was able to respond when Chaves briefly caught him with 200m to go to maintain a firm grip on the leader’s red jersey.
“I put everything I had into that last couple of hundred metres,” Froome said after his first stage win of 2017. “I was determined that they weren’t going to catch me.
“I’m really, really happy to get the victory. The team did a brilliant job on that final climb and set such a good tempo.
“After a week we couldn’t have asked to be in a better position. It’s been a fantastic start to the Vuelta.”
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